What I've said is that we would put a cap and trade system in place that is as aggressive, if not more aggressive, than anybody else's out there.

I was the first to call for a 100% auction on the cap and trade system, which means that every unit of carbon or greenhouse gases emitted would be charged to the polluter. That will create a market in which whatever technologies are out there that are being presented, whatever power plants that are being built, that they would have to meet the rigors of that market and the ratcheted down caps that are being placed, imposed every year.

So if somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can; it's just that it will bankrupt them because they're going to be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that's being emitted.

That will also generate billions of dollars that we can invest in solar, wind, biodiesel and other alternative energy approaches.

The only thing I've said with respect to coal, I haven't been some coal booster. What I have said is that for us to take coal off the table as a (sic) ideological matter as opposed to saying if technology allows us to use coal in a clean way, we should pursue it.

So if somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can.

It's just that it will bankrupt them.

The union bosses at the UMWA have endorsed Obama. But the union bosses will always be the last to go. After the last coal miner is laid off, their union representatives can get jobs as lobbyists.

Former coal miners will not be so lucky as their bosses. It's supposed that not all coal miners will be laid off, though. China will still need coal; some of it will come from the United States.

The Obama campaign has responded with the regular: Obama's quote is taken out of context. It's the same initial response the campaign had to the airing of Rev. Jeremiah Wright's sermons during the Democratic primaries.

Initially, the campaign said the Wright quotes were "taken out of context". When that position no longer became tenable, then Obama threw Rev. Wright under his famous bus.

The reader can listen, read and then decide for himself if the Senator from Illinois has been "taken out of context".

Gladnick's observation about this hidden portion of the SF Chronicle interview?